Armenia Joined Two UN Optional Protocols

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia joined two UN optional protocols - the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration Gagik Yeganyan handed the documents in deposit to the UN Secretary General.



The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. The Convention defines discrimination against women as "...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field."



"Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction…No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture," says the Convention against Torture.



The optional protocol to Convention against Tortures was approves in late 2002 and came into force in June 2006. It allows the UN experts attend the jails of the Convention member states and calls for creation of national mechanisms targeted at prevention of tortures, reports the UN communication unit.